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Marketing and Supply Chain went through a paradigm shift in 1987 when Dwyer,Schurr and Oh published their article Developing Buyer-Seller Relationships. Since then many scholars have used the marriage analogy to understand long term B2B relationships, business markets (SRM)and even consumer markets (CRM ) . Every link of the supply chain is a B2B relationship and it needs to be stable like a solid marriage, so that the next link in the value chain gets reliable product or service.
NBC reports that divorce is down 49% in DC due to the recession as it is simply not affordable by both parties !Similarly I guess B2B relations tend to continue in a recession as it is too expensive and risky to look for new partners both on the buy side and sell side of the business.
On a lighter vein B2B marketers and Supply Chain Managers need to smile with the country song it's cheaper to keep her.